What have you fettled today?

[The Family Cyclist]

Many moons ago when my eldest was in reusable nappies they started to get a bit rubbish round the elastic and the velcro. Replaced the leg elastic but the velcro wasn't simple as involved unpicking part of the nappy, sewing on new velcro then sewing up

I cheated and bought a popper gun where you use a bradle tonpoke a hole, put through what looks like a plastic drawing pin ans then slide on the half of the popper before squishing it down

It's been unused for years but one of the wife's reusable sanitary products the popper came off. She was going to put in cloth recycling but found the tool and one remaining popper so pretty pleased managed to fix it first time as sometimes squish at an angle

[SoreTween]

Lightened the gravel bike considerably by cleaning it. Took most of the day to get a winter's worth of mud out of the cassette & mech. Very overdue indicated by the chain being well over .75 stretched. Must order a couple more for stock.
After cleaning all the parts as I rebuilt it I thought it's been ages since I checked the brake pads, so I did. Fronts had zero meat left on them, running on the spring. Rear not far behind. Luckily I managed to just catch Dean Forest Cycles and they had 2 sets in stock. £50! No option to seek something cheaper as I'm doing a ride tomorrow.  Again must order stock.

[IanDG]

Took the mudguards off the Cross-Check, switched the slicks (Vittoria Voyager Hyper 35c) for the 40c WTB Nanos. After a long dry spell it looks like we're going to get some rain - typical.

[T42]

Replaced the tube in the eBrute's back wheel, took my Road Morph apart and copiously greased the piston & barrel. Still no blow, piston ring worn out.

ETA and when putting it back on the bike I found that the back wheel needs a bit of spoke-twiddling.  Bugger.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Swapped the drive chainrings on Steve’s tandem, along with the drive chain, both tyres, both rim tapes and all the taillights’ batteries. Replaced the rear mudguard (cracked bracket) with something from the garage pile and I think I finally got the correct adjustment of the front derailleur.

I think I will swap the captain’s handlebars with something that is more comfortable in the drops (classic, not ‘anatomic’!) and I will add some gel pads under new handlebar tape. After that, it should be all go for PBP.

Regreased the bearings on HK’s shiny trike’s front wheel.

[sam]

Had another run at a different gear ratio on my vertically dropout -challenged Sabbath. Even though the ratio I have is fine. It wouldn't be fine if most of my riding was on the flat, but it isn't, so this was merely an {enjoyable} waste of time.

[T42]

Looks like one of Ptolemy's attempts to explain the orbit of Mars.

[andrewc]

I'd ordered an Ikea Kallax & some Drona boxes to go in it.   The plan was to collect it from their local drop off point later today, using the bike trailer.


06:30 my mobile rings,  it's the delivery chap asking if I want it delivered to my home address at 08:00 instead.  Yes please!   


Kallax carried upstairs & duly assembled.   I've also got an Expedit unit which was the predecessor to the Kallax.  I think this was a bit sturdier,  but the Kallax & Drona combo should be fit for their intended purpose which is to store my shoe collection ! 


My sister has just called me Imogen narcolepsy   

[Feanor]

My microscope.  The zoom knob had seized up.
Careful disassembly revealed that two brass tubes containing the objective optics had seized together.
The outer one with the helical groves is meant to rotate about the inner one, and some pins attached to the inner one cause it to telescope back and forth as the outer one rotates.

Careful application of penetrating oil, then a bit of force using some water pump pliers with tape over the jaws to prevent scoring, and it freed up with very little force. A few wiggles back and forth got the penetrating oil all around the interface, and within minutes it was spinning freely by hand.

Re-assembly was a bit fiddly, there are many, many tiny grub screws to deal with and then you need to get both objectives at the same zoom level ( against their end-stop ) and then get the adjustment knob aligned to it.


microscope by Ron Lowe, on Flickr

[Pingu]

I took advantage of the scaffolding that has been erected for this to clear out a gutter and remove some superfluous coaxial cable.

[JefO]

Creaky BB - so trying to get off non drive crank,
one of the two allen blots (lol)
refused to budge.
Long story short, drilled it out.
No damage to crank.
Result!
Found better quality allen blots (lol) cut down to correct length.
Cleaned threads in non-drive crank with 6mm tap.
Removed left side BB bearing cap (24mm hollowtech II)
Unable to shift the drive crank far enough away from the frame...
Found a 200mm length of 28mm diameter aluminium bar. Used that as a drift.
Cleaned all the grit, muck, debris out of the bottom brackety hole. (It has spent way too long under dirty puddle water, don's ask!)
Copper greased the BB threads, fitted new(ish) BB
Refitted copper greased crankshaft, non drive side crank, end plug and coppergreased allen blots (lol).
Yay no creaking on the ride today!

[The Family Cyclist]

Not a table tennis table

Wife told me she'd lent my crazy Egyptian neighbour a pair of pliers. No problem with this. Later got a text from his wofe asking if I could go round tonight and help assemble a table tennis table. I basically have no free time and away all weekend so had to say no but worried that he's been doing it with pliers

When they got a gas BBQ I was summoned as it didn't work. Was a pile of bits that weren't apparently needed and obviously where and he had bent bits to fit where not meant to, Ibasically rebuilt it and got it working.

He's a great neighbour but very Arabic in his out look especially on health and safety

[JefO]

After having lost use of my house's back wall as a venue for working on my bikes, I had to dream up a way of providing off the ground support for working on the fleet. My garage has been getting a new lease of life, as a workshop. I also have had the onerous task of disposing of all my parent's possessions... which included some mobility crutches.

The extending aluminium tubes rubber feet were removed and I drilled holes through the bottom part of the bottom tubes. Then I turned the crutches upside down and screwed them to the rafters. The handles have a soft plastic covering, ideal for supporting fragile bicycle frames.

Height above ground is pretty near perfect for me, and is adjustable independently front and rear in sensible increments. Also they can be pushed up to be out of the way when not in use.

[Kim]

+10 sheddi points   

[andrewc]

Sprayed some lube on my Meaco Fan.  The fan itself is _very_quiet, but when it oscillates from side to side it creaked !   A spray with Muc-Off's finest and the creak is gone. 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Replaced the rear tube on my fixed before heading to work - again! Nothing found in the tyre but I am starting to doubt myself.

[Peter]

+10 sheddi points   

But also slightly sad.  Hope you have good memories, jefO.

[JefO]

But also slightly sad.  Hope you have good memories, jefO.

Thank you Peter.

Yes, I was lucky, because my Dad and I were best buddies, and when he went I was to become Mum's only carer. Mum and I always had a strong connection (we were on the same wavelength), we remained good friends to the end and we always had a laugh. We even had a good laugh ten minutes before Mum unexpectedly joined Dad.

My sister was capable of helping but chose not to, she is bitter and twisted (always has been), she lies continually and insults everyone I love, embarrasses me at every opportunity, never thanked me for anything I did for her, so I have now totally cut her off from my life, and I feel like I have had a cancerous growth removed.

So nothing but happy memories now.

Ooh I seem to have unloaded a bit there!

[Paul]

Ooh I seem to have unloaded a bit there!

There's more than one way to fettle.

 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Replaced the bearings in HK’s recumbent’s RH front wheel.

Regreased the front wheel bearings on HK’s shiny trike. Still need to swap the cassette and handlebars for next weekend’s brevet.

Replaced the rear tube on Steve’s tandem.

Replaced the rear tubeless tyre and gear hanger on another friend’s tandem. Reset the eccentric to lower the BB and swapped the captain’s saddle for next weekend’s brevet.

[SoreTween]

Spent the entire day at my computer, something I normally avoid like the plague outside work hours as that's what I do Mon-Fri.  But avoiding the (home) office at weekends & evenings means all my paperwork was horrifically out of date, now it isn't.

Thank goodness for TMS, it made the day entirely tolerable.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Tried to fix a tool bottle under the downtube of the Classic Racing Surly. Since there are no bottle bosses there, I used a sort of zip-on device, which worked well, in that it didn't move and did provide something to attach a bottle cage to. Unfortunately it proved impossible to find a suitable position: too low and it clashed with the chain, too high and it was far nearer the front wheel than I felt comfortable with. But the biggest problem was actually the cable for the front mech, which runs down the underside of the down tube, unsheathed, ie under tension. Couldn't quite a position where the cage didn't touch it. FD still worked but with a slight delay. So I've taken it off and put tube and tools elsewhere.

This was all done on Friday night. Perhaps I'd get better results if I didn't do the fettling at midnight on a party nite. But then again, what's a party without a bit of fettle?

[Kim]

Reminds me of the heady days of late-night bike fettling in the CrinklyDen before some forum ride or other, with flagrant disregard for the don't-start-anything-after-midnight rule.  Things not quite fitting were a staple.

[robgul]

Failed fettle on a customer's bike - the front derailleur gear cable nipple has now pulled all the way through the LH lever housing* resulting in no pull at all.   It's a well-used 105 2 x 11 set-up.   Customer has asked for a quote for replacing both levers as RH lever doesn't look that brilliant - so that's bartape too and new inners and outers . . . . and the front mech is a bit sloppy so for another £25 or so that's up for a swap too.

It's his "3rd ranking bike" so no hurry.

On a positive note : replacing the shifters etc on a Spec MTB retro fitted by the customer with a front wheel motor (yes, really) was "perfect first time" on gear changing indexing on both mechs!

* I've seen worn cable housings (the "funnel shaped" bit in the lever) before but not completely worn away.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Tried to fix a tool bottle under the downtube of the Classic Racing Surly. Since there are no bottle bosses there, I used a sort of zip-on device, which worked well, in that it didn't move and did provide something to attach a bottle cage to. Unfortunately it proved impossible to find a suitable position: too low and it clashed with the chain, too high and it was far nearer the front wheel than I felt comfortable with. But the biggest problem was actually the cable for the front mech, which runs down the underside of the down tube, unsheathed, ie under tension. Couldn't quite a position where the cage didn't touch it. FD still worked but with a slight delay. So I've taken it off and put tube and tools elsewhere.

This was all done on Friday night. Perhaps I'd get better results if I didn't do the fettling at midnight on a party nite. But then again, what's a party without a bit of fettle?

And later yesterday, after posting this, I noted that the tool bottle on the Black Bike (which has bosses in the appropriate place and sensibly sheathed gear cables) was half out of its cage. I've never known it jump out over bumps or anything, so presumably someone had tried to knick it while I was parked in town. Nothing inside was missing, so either they'd been disturbed (unlikely, as it was in a well observed area, so who's going to pay attention), or they'd been disappointed to find only tools and a tube inside (what had they been expecting?). Or maybe they had mistaken it for an e-bike battery. Or maybe it had got jolted out on the cobbles. Anyway, a strap seems advised.